The Untamed Heiress

Before Adam could decide whether he was more offended or diverted by the girl’s antagonism, the door opened and a short, bespectacled gentleman hurried in. Seeing the two of them facing each other, he halted abruptly.

“Oh, dear! Lord Darnell, I had hoped to discourse with you privately before…well, I see ’tis too late for that. Arthur Pendenning, sir, at your service,” he said with a bow. “You’ve introduced yourselves, Miss Lambarth?”

“His lordship and I have indeed met,” the girl replied. “As you insisted. Now, if you and I could finish our consultations, I’ll be on my way.”

“There’s no need to hurry,” Mr. Pendenning said. “Knowing that you have just finished an exhausting journey, I’ve ordered some refreshment. Shall we not sit together and chat while we partake of it? Please, Miss Lambarth. Lord Darnell, you will remain with us, I trust?”

Rather against his will, Adam murmured a polite acceptance. Far from appearing a grief-stricken waif in need of her relatives’ support, the girl seemed almost hostile—and entirely undeferential, either to him or the lawyer. He struggled to resist the urge to let his initial shock at her appearance turn to dislike at her rudeness.

He shouldn’t judge her too harshly, he reminded himself. After all, she’d had no mother to guide her for years and, Lady Darnell had warned him, by the time of his death, her late father had become practically a hermit. She probably wasn’t to blame for what appeared to be a decided lack of proper maidenly deportment.

“Ah, here is the tray,” Mr. Pendenning said. “Lord Darnell, Miss Lambarth, if you would both sit?”

While the servant removed the cover before bowing himself out, Adam deposited himself on the sofa and Miss Lambarth walked with obvious reluctance to perch on the edge of an adjoining wing chair.

Did she think he would bite? Adam wondered with a touch of humor, watching as she covertly watched him from the corner of her eye. She seemed less wary with the lawyer, who seated himself near her and began pouring tea.

Adam was about to make some light remark to try to set her at ease when suddenly she turned toward the teapot, sniffing the air.

Mr. Pendenning extended a cup to her. Cautiously she accepted it, holding the delicate china at arm’s length and inspecting the contents, then bending to sniff the liquid.

The awful suspicion that perhaps the girl was not all right in the head had begun to form in Adam’s mind when, just as suddenly, she smiled. A passionate intensity lit her face, briefly imbuing her thin features with an attractiveness Adam felt almost like a shock.

Before the shaken Adam could begin to wonder at his unexpected reaction, she turned her expressive eyes on the lawyer. “Tea, is it not?” she asked Mr. Pendenning.

“Yes, my dear. Have you drunk it before?”

“Not since Mama left. But I remember it was good.”

“Taste it and see what you think.”

She took a sip. “Oh, yes! It is good!”

“Some people prefer it with a bit of cake or biscuit. Should you like some?”

She put down the cup and inspected the tray he offered her. “Cake. It is…sweeter than bread, isn’t it?”

“Have you not eaten that, either, since your mama went away?” Mr. Pendenning asked.

“No. Is bread and water not the normal fare for prisoners?” she asked, a bitter note in her voice. “Augmented occasionally, when I managed to slip out and visit Mad Sally, with wild berries from the woods.”

“I think you will find the cake even sweeter than berries. Do try some.” Though Mr. Pendenning’s tone remained light, as Miss Lambarth reached for the proffered slice, he glanced at Adam and shook his head, outrage in his eyes.

Beginning to comprehend now what the lawyer was attempting to demonstrate, Adam watched her intently, astounded by Miss Lambarth’s delighted exploration of food so ordinary most Londoners of her class would scarcely have given it a second glance.

His heart contracted with pity as she tasted the cake. Once again he felt an odd sizzle of contact when another brilliant smile lit her face. “’Tis wondrous good!”

“Eat as much as you wish, my dear. You must be famished after so long a journey.” Something about the lawyer’s tone led Adam to think the man was referring to more than Miss Lambarth’s recent trip to London.

After nibbling the cake, she tasted the biscuits. Then Mr. Pendenning uncovered another dish and gestured to it. “Have one of these, too, if you like.”

Giving him a quizzical glance, she picked up one of the round objects and rolled it between her fingers. “So smooth,” she said, and lifted it to her nose. “Smells sweet, like berries. Does one eat the whole?”

“No, one peels it first.” Mr. Pendenning demonstrated how to section out the fruit. “It’s called an orange.”

Her totally unexpected, musical peal of laughter startled Adam. “Of course! Like the color. I’ve read about them, but the book had no illustration, so I didn’t know what the fruit looked like.”

“Take a bite, my dear. ’Tis somewhat sweet, like a berry, but different.”

Her dark eyes alight with curiosity now, she took the piece of fruit the lawyer sectioned off for her and bit into it, laughing again as juice spurted onto her chin and she brought up her other hand to catch the drip.

The hand that, until this moment, she’d kept within the folds of her shabby skirt. As she wiped her chin, Adam stared in horrified fascination at the jagged scar that ran from the base of her thumb to her wrist.

The lawyer, Adam noted, was staring, as well. In the sudden silence Miss Lambarth darted a glance at Adam, then Pendenning. Her smile faded and her face flushed as she quickly shoved the damaged hand back into her lap.

Adam heard Pendenning’s soft hiss of an explicative. “Please, do have some more, my dear,” the lawyer entreated.

“Thank you, I’ve had enough. I’ll finish the tea.”

“You’ve had barely half a slice of cake and only a bite of the biscuit. I thought you said you hadn’t eaten since arriving in London this morning,” the lawyer said.

“I’ve had nothing since yesterday, but this was quite sufficient. I’m used to eating…lightly,” she said, irony once again coloring her tone.

Lord in Heaven, Adam thought, glad that Mr. Pendenning seemed able to carry on the conversation without him, for the almost unbelievable conclusions flooding his mind rendered him speechless. Suddenly he was fiercely glad that Lady Darnell had been called upon to receive her cousin’s child. After what he’d just seen and heard, even if the girl had possessed two heads and a tail, Adam would have felt compelled to take her in.

Miss Lambarth finished her tea and set down the cup. “Thank you, Mr. Pendenning. That was wonderful.” She gave him a wry look. “As I’m sure was rather evident, ’twas more variety of sustenance than I’ve had in a decade.”

“That, my dear, is something we shall shortly correct,” the lawyer said, fervency in his tone. “As I hope you will agree, Lord Darnell?”

“Absolutely.” Adam spoke up at last. “Although your cousin had a rather imperfect recollection of your age, Miss Lambarth,” he said, indicating with a grin the doll he’d placed on the side table, “it is her most ardent wish, which my sister and I share, that you will do us the honor of agreeing to join our household.”

Interest sparked in her eyes. “You have a sister?”

“Yes. Charis is eighteen—about your age?”

“I’m turned twenty,” Miss Lambarth replied. “A sister…” she repeated, her gaze drifting off. “Oh, that would be wonderful,” she murmured, almost to herself.

“Since Charis is as sweet as she is lovely, I believe you would find it so. Won’t you make us all happy, then, and come live with us?”

Miss Lambarth looked up, staring straight into his eyes. “Are you sure you want me?” she asked bluntly. “You’ve seen what I look like and garnered some idea of how I’ve lived. I…I’m not sure I would fit into an elegant London household. As tempting as it is to contemplate living with my cousin, perhaps even having a sister, I think ’twill be better if I live on my own.”

Mr. Pendenning’s protest echoed Adam’s. “No, my dear, that would not do at all! In our Society, unmarried young ladies do not live alone.”

Miss Lambarth lifted an eyebrow and shrugged. “I am quite able to take care of myself, I assure you.”

“I expect you are. That isn’t the point. For a single female to live alone just isn’t done.”

Miss Lambarth stiffened. “You told me I could set up a household in every town in England, if I wished.”